Bonds' Lawyers Ask Judge to Throw Out Perjury Charges (Update1)
By Karen Gullo and Erik Matuszewski
Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Attorneys for Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball's home-run record holder, asked a federal judge to throw out several of the 14 perjury charges accusing the former outfielder of lying about taking steroids.
Dennis Riordan, one of five attorneys for Bonds at a hearing today in San Francisco, said as many as eight of the perjury charges contained in an indictment were either redundant or were based on questions posed to Bonds before a 2003 grand jury that were vague and confusing.
``Were the court to grant all the counts, the government would be left with five or six counts that cover all the same ground,'' Riordan told U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston.
Bonds was charged with making false statements to a grand jury in 2003 when he denied taking performance-enhancing drugs. He was originally charged last year with four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. A new indictment in May accused Bonds, 44, of 14 false statements and one count of obstruction after Illston said the original counts were flawed because they alleged more than one lie.
Bonds has denied knowingly taking steroids. A trial is scheduled for March 2.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Wilson defended the government's indictment, saying Bonds's answers to questions about whether he was given steroids by his trainer, Greg Anderson, were ambiguous. Wilson said a jury should be allowed to decide whether Bonds was truthful.
`Same Lies'
``By repeating the same lies over and over again, by engaging in evasion of prosecutors' questions, Mr. Bonds is alleged to have obstructed justice,'' Wilson said.
Illston didn't rule on the case today.
Riordan said the government agreed to either withdraw one count alleging Bonds lied when he said he didn't take any steroids given by Anderson or refile the count in a new indictment. Bonds seeks dismissal of that count because it failed to say that the alleged false statement was material.
That was a ``typographical omission,'' prosecutors said in court papers. They said they would refile the charge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Parrella declined to comment after the hearing.
Bonds hasn't played in the major leagues since the 2007 season, the last of his 15 years with the San Francisco Giants.
Bonds broke Hank Aaron's record of 755 career home runs in August 2007. Three months later, he was indicted in the federal government's probe of athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The case is U.S. v Barry Bonds, 07-732, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
To contact the reporters on this story: Karen Gullo at U.S. District Court in San Francisco at kgullo@bloomberg.net; Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 5, 2008 21:29 EST |
